1. Filed of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-vehicle equipment control device for controlling in-vehicle equipments mounted on a vehicle, in more particular, to an in-vehicle equipment control device for remotely operating the in-vehicle equipments by a force sense imparting type input device mounted on a steering.
Herein, it is to be noted that the term “force sense imparting” means a technique of feeling a calculated world through an actual body feeling, namely, a technique of imparting an operation feeling by a so-called “virtual reality”.
2. Related Art
Various in-vehicle equipments such as audio equipment, air conditioner, and car navigation system are mounted in a vehicle. As an example of input operations for the in-vehicle equipments, an operation pattern etc. is displayed on a display monitor and an input operation device is operated based on this displayed information.
For examples there is an in-vehicle equipment control device configured to impact a force sense by a manual operation part, a monitor, and a control means. For example JP-A-2003-140810 discloses this type of the in-vehicle equipment control device. The manual operation part comprises a casing, an operating shaft, a knob bonded to an upper end of the operating shaft, an elastic member for biasing the knob downwards at all times, a guide board of the knob to which a lower end of the operating shaft is elastically connected, and a detecting means for detecting an operating position of the knob. A groove in a cross shape having a width for receiving a tip portion of the operating shaft is formed on the guide board and an asperity (convexo-concave portion) is formed on a bottom surface of this groove. Meanwhile, an image of the groove formed on the guide board, an image of the asperity formed on the bottom surface of the groove, and a circular marking indicating an actual location of the knob are displayed three-dimensionally on the monitor.
According to the device disclosed by JP-A-2003-140810, since it is possible to display an operational feeling by the three-dimensional display on the monitor and also possible to impart the force sense by the control means when operating the knob, it is possible to learn the operational feeling accurately regardless vibrations of the vehicle.
The in-vehicle equipment control device disclosed by JP-A-2003-140810 has above-mentioned effects, when a positional relationship between the manual operation part and the monitor is constant. However, the positional relationship between the manual operation part and the monitor will be varied, when the manual operation part is mounted on for example the steering and the steering is rotated. When a driver conducts the input operation of the in-vehicle equipments by operating the manual operation part based on the monitor information in such a state, it is difficult for the driver to operate the in-vehicle equipments and an operational error is also assumed.